A group of 15 Muslim leaders from across Europe arrived in Israel on Monday for a week-long peace-building trip.
On their first day in the country, the delegation – which included representatives from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium as well as the UK – met Israeli President Isaac Herzog, before visiting the Knesset and touring the old city of Jerusalem.
During their meeting with President Herzog, some members of the delegation – led by Imam Youssef Masbeh, who has served as a religious leader in the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway for 20 years – sang a special recitation of Hatikvah.
Meanwhile Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, chairman of the Conference of Imams of France, who is often referred to as “the peace imam”, told President Herzog: “The war that broke out after Oct. 7 is not a war between Israel and Hamas or Israel and Hezbollah but a war between two worlds… You represent the world of humanity and democracy.”
“We are all the sons of Abraham,” Herzog told the group. “I believe that the historic progress in our region is the result of dialogue – between Muslims and Jews and between Jews and Muslims. Against the extremist forces trying to stop this progress of living together, there are other forces that are growing stronger every day, advancing this vision.”
“Here in Israel, we want peace,” he added. “We want to see all our hostages back home, and we want to see an end to the suffering of the people in Gaza, too. We want to see better lives for everyone.”
The trip was arranged by The European Leadership Network (ELNET), a non-profit which works to strengthen relations between Europe and Israel.
The UK’s representative on the trip is Pakistani-born Noor Dahri, founder and executive director of Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism (ITCT), a UK-based counter terrorism think tank.
Sharing a picture of himself on social media outside Al Aqsa mosque wearing a yellow hostage pin, Dahri wrote: “Everyone asked me not to wear yellow pin in Al Aqsa due to my security but I refused. I stand with Israeli hostages everywhere in the world so inside Al- Aqsa. Alhamdulillah.”
During the meeting with President Herzog, Dahri shared: “Islamists in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, are stronger and more powerful than Islamists in Pakistan or the Middle East because while in the region people know they are extremists, in Europe they live among the people and spread their extremist political ideology in mosques and Islamic community centers unchecked.
“People in Europe who say they are supporting the Palestinians are actually supporting Hamas.”
Later in the week, the group is scheduled to meet with Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef, IDF Arabic Spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee, family members of former Bedouin hostages in Gaza and Druze victims of the Majdal Shams massacre at the hands of Hezbollah. They are also due to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, travel to the Syrian and Lebanese borders, and visit sites of the October 7 attack.
Speaking to the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), Imam Hassen Chalghoumi said that the group were highly aware that attending the trip came with risks, with some delegates declining to be interviewed or photographed.
“We are fearful of the consequences of the threats,” he told them, “but the courageous are those who make history and change the world.”
